Scarlett's POV

A/N SO NORMALLY I DON'T DO THESE BUT I JUST REALIZED I ACCIDENTALLY PUBLISHED PART EIGHTEEN WHEN I HAD FIFTEEN SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN LEFT TO PUBLISH. SO FORGET THAT HAPPENED, AND READ THIS INSRTEAD. WE CAN PRETEND THAT I GAVE YOU A SNEAK PEEK TO FUTURE EVENTS HAPPENING. SO SORRY! I CAN BE SUCH AN IDIOT SOMETIMES!

I stood with the others in front of the jet, my backpack slung over my shoulder. Most of our luggage had already been loaded onto the carrier but I had held onto this one. Sighing I stepped onto the ramp and made my way up and into the plane. I didn't fancy long flights, in fact I hated flying. At least in a car you could stop every now and then to walk around and stretch your legs. Flying, well that was entirely impossible. Tossing my bag into the seat that I had claimed as my own I sat down on one of the cots. Natasha took the one next to mine. She had disapeared for a little while but whatever tension had occured seemed to be gone for now. At least, that's what the others thought. I knew better, she was rather irritated, but good at hiding it.

Sadly this made Tony feel as though there was no reason for him to apologize. She smiled and talked like nothing ever happened. Clint had politley ignored the fact that something was up. He had known her longer than the rest of us and if he wasn't pressing the issue nobody else would either, but from Cap's worried expression I knew he was just as concerned as me. Things had been heated lately. The stress of an unknown threat weighing down on all of us and let's just say it affected people differently. What I truly was afraid of though was that if incidents like earlier today kept happening, Natasha would with draw more until she quit the team. It would start out with her talking less, then becoming scarce in apearance, after that she would be in her own world, locking everything up and throwing the key away. That was one option. There were two more.  She would become more violent, aggresive until she was forced to leave becasue she was unsure of how to deal with what was going on. Or we would push her to her breaking point. All three were terrible, but there was the fourth possible outcome. She could stay the same as she was now. Still the loveable red head at times, but I knew that would kill her just as much as the other possibilities.

As the ramp lifted and shut us inside the plane Tony walked by and instantly Steve latched onto him. I knew what was going to happen. Steve was going to make Tony feel guilty, he would apologize or do something to make up for what he said, but when the stress built up again he would snap. There was only one way to keep that from happening, we were going to have to get Natasha to talk no matter how difficult it was. Absorbed in my thoughts it took me a moment to realize we had lifted off. Now it would be a few hours until our destination was reached.

Leaning back against the pillow that accompanied the cot I closed my eyes remembering Fury's words.  Well, after that, I'm not entirely sure I want to explain. He then glared directly at Tony who shrugged. As I said, all of you will be staying at Clint's, you are not to draw attention to yourselves, you are not to do anything involving the case. Do not bring up anything that will upset Natasha. Understood? Even I don't know the extent of her problems, no one does, but whatever it is she will tell you when the time is right. Some people have a harder time dealing with their past than others. With a final glare at Tony we were dismissed to gather our things.

"I brought snacks!" Clint practically yelled breaking my thought pattern. He held an entire back pack up and started pulling things out before deciding to dump all of the contents out instead. A good sized pile of granola bars, trail mix, candy bars, and anything you could think of rested on the closest chair. My stomach growled at the sight of the pile and Clint must have heard it because he smirked in my direction.

"What did you do raid the pantries?" Steve asked having finished his talk with Tony. He walked over studying everything with wide eyes before hesitantly picking out a granola bar.

"Well go on help yourselves!" Clint said clearly pleased with himself. Steve picked through the items pulling out a bunch, then again I shouldn't be to surprised by the quantity of food, he had a fast metabolism.

"Anyone want anything?" Steve asked. I thought for a moment, what to eat?

"I'll go for the pretzels." Steve picked up two packages tossing them lightly in my direction.

"Gummy bears, please!" Natasha called. He tossed her what she had asked for before Clint pulled over a small ice chest. He opened the lid with a cheesy grin.

"Beverages anyone?" Laughing I asked for water. Thor who had heard the mention of food also came over and raided the supplies. With everyone eating happily the jet was full of the sound of wrinkled bags and the crunching of food. Natasha had buseid herself in tossing a gummy bear in the air and catching it in her mouth. Clint having noticed this tried mimicking her but missed. Soon we were all tossing our food in the air and trying to catch it. So absorbed in our activities none of us heard Tony telling us to prepare for landing. We only knew this when a sudden jolt and the titling of the jet sent us crashing into one another. Falling to the ground I slid forward and up against the door leading to the cockpit. Clint stumbled nearly falling on top of me. Soon we were all in a tangled pile.

"Steve get you elbow out of my side!" Clint whined.

"How about you get your foot out of my face?" I retorted.

"Oh stop complaining!" Natasha fussed.

"You're one to talk ,your arm is in an unfriendly place!" Steve called.

"You think that's my fault?" She hissed.

"Umm, guys could you all get off of me?" Thor asked. He was sandwiched between all of us on the floor. Not being able to help it I laughed sending everyone into a fit of their own. Slowly we disentangled ourselves from one another with apologies following close behind. Once free I straightened myself out wiping the tears from my eyes. Just then Tony opened the door only to see all of us in a mess.

"What happened? I told you we were landing." This only caused us to laugh some more. Tony grumbled shoving past us as the ramp lowered. Snatching up my bag I was the first off of the planned and touching solid ground. The grass was lush and green a welcome sight compared to the metal interior of the plane. Sucking in a lung full of the sweet damp air I followed Clint towards the homestead. Stepping inside I smiled having never been here before. Though I couldn't help but feel saddened that my brother wasn't here to see it.

"He would have loved it here." I whispered. Thor rested a comforting hand on my shoulder as we continued on. Stepping out the back door we saw a second small two story building.

"Renovations." Clint spoke in mock nonchalance. My mouth hung open as I stared at the pristine wooden structure. Eager to see the insides I followed him and the others. A low rumbling came from behind us and I turned to see Steve riding his motorcycle towards us a large grin on his face.

"I can't believe you actually brought that." Natasha teased as he rolled buy.

"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Steve called speeding away. Thor let out a thunderous laugh.

"He is talking about our friend Tony!" With that we all raced towards our destination. Sure enough Tony was dead last but he wasn't trying very hard from the looks of it. Opening the door we explored the inside. The first floor was split into two sections on one side there were five  beds on the other was a door leading to the bathroom. Upstairs was similar except there were only two beds making the room more spacious. Natasha quickly claimed the bed closest to the window by sprinting forward and flinging herself onto the matress.

"Sorry, you snooze you lose." She said giving my a devilish smile. Rolling my eyes I rested my backpack next to the bed that was left for me. Clint stood by the door observing us a hand reached back to rub the back of his neck.

"I know it's not much, but I figured-" I cut him off before he could say anything else.

"You had three days, that's it. Three days and you got all of this done. It's perfect."  He smiled so much that his eyes almost squinted shut. With that he left us to unpack our things. Digging around in my bag I pulled out what little belongings I had and put them in their designated places. The rest of the day passed smoothly with little more than the occasional argument but all major blow outs had been avoided. Surprisingly I felt a great comfort in eating with everyone. It had been a long time since we had shared a dinner together and it seemed that everyone was enjoying themselves. That night as I lay in bed I close my eyes happier than I had been in a while. I prayed that it would stay like this for the rest of the time we were here.

The next morning as we sat down to another meal I noticed that not everyone was at the table. Well, I figured it was to good to be true, sharing two meals together. Steve was apparently out tuning up his motorcycle and Tony was busy sleeping in. Thor well no one really knew where he had run off to though we assumed whatever it was it must be important.So there I was sitting alone at the breakfast table, eating a nice breakfast, having a peaceful morning, when of course disaster struck. Steve bounded into the homestead's kitchen beaming.

"Look who's here guys!" He called. I turned reluctantly to peek out the window. Low and behold a very familiar person was walking across the field.

"No way." I whispered. Peeling my eyes away from the sight I hurried towards the door only to be nearly knocked over by Tony. Somehow he had miraculously woken from his slumber and entered the homestead through the back door only to exit through the front. Excited we bounded out the door and towards the figure when Steve told us to wait, we didn't want to overwhelm him. I nodded practically dancing in place. It had been months since we had last seen him and no one really knew what had happened.He drew nearer when I noticed a certain red head stomping angrily in his direction.

"Uh, guys..." They all looked in the same direction as me.

"This isn't going to end well." Tony grumbled, whereas Steve seemed to have a different reaction.

"Let's see how this plays out. They probably have a lot to talk about." It turns out talking wasn't exactly what happened. We watched expectanly wanting to see if this ended nicely only for our hopes to be shattered. Natasha walked right up to Bruce, and slapped him.